Drivin' along in Terraplane and early Oak Ridge recalled

Monday

Apr 23, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 23, 2012 at 11:22 PM

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president when I was born in 1944 and the United States was already four years into World War II. FDR's authorization of the Manhattan Engineering District in 1942 was the single act that eventually caused me to become an "Oak Ridger." Harry S. Truman took over in 1945 after Roosevelt's death and served until I was 9. I never got to meet FDR or Harry because I was just a kid then and they were too busy fighting the enemy to worry about me.

Dave Westcott

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president when I was born in 1944 and the United States was already four years into World War II. FDR's authorization of the Manhattan Engineering District in 1942 was the single act that eventually caused me to become an "Oak Ridger." Harry S. Truman took over in 1945 after Roosevelt's death and served until I was 9. I never got to meet FDR or Harry because I was just a kid then and they were too busy fighting the enemy to worry about me.

In 1950, I lived at 102 Dewey Road in Oak Ridge. All of the "D" roads were off of Delaware Avenue. Oak Ridge had streets named after the states and they ran from east-to-west in the town by the alphabet. Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, and so forth. It's pretty smart and easy to remember. If somebody told you they lived on Malta Road, you knew they lived off of Michigan. If more towns had followed that pattern we probably would never have invented the GPS.

The first car I can remember my Dad driving was a 1938 Terraplane. They were built by Hudson and cost about $325 used.

The late Davy Jones of the Monkees had a Terraplane, too. British bluesman Eric Clapton covered Robert Johnson's 1936 song Terraplane Blues which went ...

"Who been drivin' my Terraplane for you since I been gone?"

The Hudson folks had a catchy, but long slogan for the Terraplane that claimed ...

"On the sea that's aquaplaning, in the air that's aeroplaning, but on the land, in the traffic, on the hills, hot diggity dog, THAT'S TERRAPLANING."

Dad would load us up and take us to Nashville in the Terraplane. I remember the car being big and roomy, but I guess most cars are big and roomy when you're 6. Our old Terraplane had a little rust ... well, maybe a lot of rust! The rear floorboards were where I remember the most rust. We had cardboard and newspapers on the floor to keep out the cold weather, rain and snow. And I guess it was to keep us from falling through too.

Our trips to Nashville were before "Ike" became president, so we did not benefit from the Eisenhower Interstate System yet. The 184-mile trip that takes three and-a-half hours on Interstate 40 today would take us six hours through the two-lane roads that hit every city along the way. Tough trip for an old Terraplane -- three kids, no McDonald's and a leaky floorboard.

Living in the "Secret City" of Oak Ridge up until the gates were opened in 1949 meant we were completely fenced in. You had to have approval to come into the city and approval to get out. I didn't know that I was fenced-in when I was growing up because times were different back then and the kids didn't need to know everything. We didn't have the Internet yet or streaming audio, apps on our iPhones or CNN. In fact, the guy that invented the Internet, fellow Tennessean and former Vice President Al Gore (just kidding), was only 2 when I was 6 so he hadn't even started thinking about the Web, global warming or what Bill Clinton could possibly be doing all that time behind the closed doors of the Oval Office.

You can only imagine what today's younger generation would have done if they had learned that they lived inside a fenced compound where housing was delegated by the government and the rationing of gasoline, meat, cigarettes and silk stockings was a common occurrence. The first thing the girls would have done would be to ask "What are silk stockings?" Oh, you mean those pantyhose we get at CVS or Walmart?

The next thing that would probably have happened is that the kids would have organized an "Occupy Oak Ridge" movement and set up a tent city in front of the X-10 plant entrance, demanding to be released from the imprisonment of the Secret City. "We are the 99 percent ... we want out." And once they got out and figured out how well off they had it, they would have wanted back in.

My Mom was the late Esther Westcott, who was one of the "Founding Mothers" of Oak Ridge. She became a registered nurse at the Oak Ridge Hospital and helped to raise our family of five kids inside the fences of the Secret City. My Dad, Ed Westcott, is a nonagenarian now (90-years-old) and was the official photographer for the Manhattan Project and the building of the city of Oak Ridge. Dad photographed close to a dozen U.S. presidents during his career including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jack Kennedy and all of the others up through the Bush father and son.

I wonder how FDR, or Ike, or even Jack Kennedy would have handled Vietnam, 9-11, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or the recession that continues to cripple the nation? I wonder too what it might be like to ride in that old Terraplane again.

Dave Westcott, a native Oak Ridger, now lives in the Washington, D.C. area.

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